Hong Kong’s civil aviation administration reported about the discovery to the authorities of Vietnam, Malaysia and the southern Chinese province of Hainan

A military official works during search and rescue operations for a missing Malaysian Airlines flight

HONG KONG/XINAGGANG/, March 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Quite massive wreckage that could do with the missing Malaysian Boeing 777-200 has been discovered in the South China Sea near Vietnam’s shores. South China Morning Post newspaper reports on Tuesday that they have been found near the city of Vung Tau by an aircrew of the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific air carrier, whose plane was flying by.

Hong Kong’s civil aviation administration reported about the discovery to the authorities of Vietnam, Malaysia and the southern Chinese province of Hainan.

However, media reports say that the area where wreckage was found does not coincide with the route of the plane, which was supposed to fly further west, above Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, the search operation in the South China Sea with participation of air and naval forces of 8 countries continues. “Despite lack of results we continue the search. The rescuers’ efforts are coordinated by Malaysian civil aviation administration,” Malaysian Airlines air carrier says in a statement. Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and the USA have sent planes or ships to the search operation area.

Malaysian authorities report that the rescuers will expand the search area on Tuesday. Chinese authorities stated that they would involve ten satellites to search for the missing airplane with 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers. The majority of the missing people are Chinese citizens. Beijing has also sent four combat ships and five civil ships to take part in the operation.

The communication with Boeing 777-200 was lost when nearly two hours passed from the departure from Malaysian capital on Friday. The plane on its way to Beijing was supposed to be above the South China Sea in 120 nautical miles from Kota Bharu (Malaysia) in this moment.

According to preliminary data, it had 154 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 5 Indians, 7 Indonesians, 7 Australians, 4 Americans, 3 French, 2 citizens of New Zealand, Canada and Ukraine, and one Russian and one Dutch on board.